Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/44

22 cottons—printed bleached twilled brown striped and checked; plain and highly-wrought ponchos and blankets; figured rebosos in cotton and silk—the silk ones in this country being the least valuable; together with trinkets hats mirrors, pantaloons, and cutlery. If you purchase a quantity of writing-paper, it will most likely be measured by the vara, and the probabilities are, that you will have a dispute about the manner of doing it—whether by the ream, the quire, or the sheet, and whether the paper should be taken horizontally or perpendicularly! If you bargain for a brace of pocket-knives, you will fall out as to whether they shall be estimated shut or open; if you desire a few rolls of cotton, you know not whether it will be retailed to you folded or unfolded; and if you select an upright mirror, it is impossible to say whether the price to be paid for it will be adjudged by the number of varas, or inches, in its height or breadth!

The stock in trade of the juggler or conjuror, round the corner, is rather startling; for in addition to his sword-swallowing and fire-scattering apparatus, he has a whole budget of minor accessories—chains, boxes,